US Customs Hold Shipments of HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE

I don’t think it matters if you’re pro-Android or anti-Android, this is ridiculous. HTC has issued the following statement tonight:

The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.

This is the result of an Apple patent that HTC was found to infringe which is entirely ubiquitous. It’s a patent when things like hyperlinks and phone numbers leads to options to take related tot hat text and let’s you choose an action, like opening the web and calling a number.

Now I have no idea how far reaching this is. This patent was filed in 1999 so it does predate most mobile phones but it wasn’t just obvious, it was something used in PCs at the time. There must be an alternative method of parsing the data that Microsoft has been using to avoid these same issues. I don’t know if any of this matters. This is not unique. This is not what patent law was intended to protect. This is the offensive use of patens and not the defensive protection of intellectual property. It’s gross and the fact that the industry has come to this is troubling. And this is coming from the person who thinks Android is trash…the issue here is unrelated to the parties…

So we’re clear, Customs may let the shipments in. They’re a silent group that can do what they want so it’s a wait and see thing for now.